Boris breaks finance rules (again)
BORIS Johnson has been reprimanded by the Commons standards watchdog for the second time in six months for failing to declare his financial interests.
The former foreign secretary was criticised for an ‘over-casual attitude towards obeying the rules’ after he did not register a share in the ownership of a rental property in Somerset.
Parliamentary commissioner for standards Kathryn Stone said Mr Johnson had shown a ‘lack of respect’ and had failed to ‘demonstrate the leadership’ expected of a longstanding and senior MP.
It comes after Mr Johnson was ordered to apologise in December over the late declaration of £52,000 in book royalty payments.
The Commons committee on standards has instructed Mr Johnson to meet with the Registrar of Members’ Financial Interests to receive a briefing on his obligations after he insisted the rules were ‘confusing’. It warned that it would consider any further breaches of the rules as a matter which may call for ‘more serious sanction’.
Miss Stone found Mr Johnson had acquired a 20 per cent share in a barn in January 2018, but did not register it for another 12 months. Under parliamentary rules, MPs with property portfolios worth more than £100,000 must declare new acquisitions within 28 days.
As part of the previous investigation, Mr Johnson gave an undertaking that his declaration of interests was up to date, but a few months later admitted he had missed out the property as he had ‘misinterpreted the rules’.
Miss Stone said: ‘Mr Johnson has co-operated fully with my inquiry, but his failure to check properly that he brought his register entry up to date during the last inquiry might be regarded as showing a lack of respect for the House’s rules and for the standards system.
‘That does not demonstrate the leadership which one would expect of a long-standing and senior Member of the House, nor compliance with the general principles of conduct.’ In response to Miss Stone’s findings, the Commons standards committee said the two investigations ‘by the Commissioner in rapid succession demonstrate a pattern of behaviour by Mr Johnson’.
It said: ‘While there is no suggestion that he has at any time tried deliberately to conceal the extent of his interests, this latest breach reinforces the view which we expressed in our previous report, that he has displayed “an over- casual attitude towards obeying the rules of the House”, in conjunction with “a lack of effective organisation within [his] office”.
‘We find it particularly regrettable that Mr Johnson gave an assurance to the Commissioner that his registration of financial interests was up to date, and within a very short period it proved not to be.’
In a letter to the committee, Mr Johnson apologised for the ‘inadvertent delay in registering the property’, adding that ‘the error was rectified as soon as I became aware of it’.
Miss Stone also investigated Mr Johnson’s MP brother, Jo, who also failed to register a share in the same property, but his case was resolved informally as it was the first time he had been accused of breaking the rules.
‘Lack of respect and over-casual attitude’